Mirrorless has made using a tilt-shift lens easier

[p4pictures]

One of the significant improvements that I have had from mirrorless is the hit rate when using a tilt-shift lens for portraits. The availability of focus peaking and focus guides helps me know where the focus is, which I often found a challenge with a TS-E on a DSLR.

Captured with TS-E 90 f/2.8 

[deebatman316]

How well do TS-E lenses work with mirrorless cameras. Also Do the manual focus assists work with them like the focus guide and peaking too.

[p4pictures]

My old TS-E 90mm f/2.8 works well with mirrorless cameras. It’s the model before the more recent L-series versions. I’ve used it on most of them from the EOS R to EOS R6 Mark II and all of them work fine with the MF focus peaking and also focus guide. 

if you tilt the lens then when you focus, the focus peaking is like a line across the subject and I simply adjust focus until the line is on the eyes as I want. 

[deebatman316]

I've never considered using a TS-E lens. I know someone that uses them. But they exclusively use them in Live view on a DSLR. They focus in live view then switch back to the viewfinder if out in the field. But most of their work is in a controlled lab environment on a tripod. In their older cameras without live view capability. They changed out there focusing screen. To one with a split or micro prism focusing screen. Which are usually seen in a MF SLR cameras. They're deciding to move on from the 5D Mark IV. They're looking into the R6 Mark II. How's E-TTL with TS-E lenses. I've heard E-TTL doesn't work well. When the lens is tilted or shifted. Then E-TTL should be avoided and Manual Flash output be used.

[p4pictures]

With a TS-E lens there are cautions in manuals about exposure even for ambient light exposures. EOS 5D Mark IV manual mentions to use live view with silent LV shoot mode set to disable when using TS-E lenses. I have used TS-E with DSLR and various mirrorless EOS cameras with and without E-TTL flash and I have not seen exposure issues, though I’m sure that could be possible. Most likely if I had actually experienced exposure issues it was not too much that I couldn’t adjust the brightness when editing. 

[deebatman316]

The person I know often is using Manual mode and manual Flash. Sometimes they'll use Av and E-TTL. I did see the live view cautions though. Do TS-E lenses have lens correction profiles available. I've used the MP-E 65mm lens. It has lens correction profiles. It's a manual focus lens without the ability to focus to infinity. 

[p4pictures]

I've not seen lens correction profiles for the TS-E, as by nature of its designed operation the lens changes its coverage of the image with the shift or tilt movements. Also the lens doesn't provide shift and tilt movement information back to the camera to record in images. Since the TS-E lenses are designed to image over an area much larger than the size of the full-frame sensor, when they are used without tilt or shift they are incredibly high performing lenses and edge distortion is not worth worrying about. 

[deebatman316]

I think the newer TS-E lenses have distance encoders for E-TTL II. The old ones more than likely don't have it. In fact none of Canon's old Arc Form Drive lenses don't have distance encoders. Some of which remained in production as late as 2021 or 2022. Also Arc Form Drive lenses have a max fps of 3 maybe 4 fps when the camera is set to AI Servo. These lenses carryout AF and Aperture control differently. These lenses AF and stop down sequentially. Instead of carrying out both actions at the same time. Also 3 L lenses used Arc Form Drive AF motors those are the EF 100-300mm F/5.6L, EF 20-35mm F/2.8L & EF 80-200mm F/2.8L lenses use this AF motor. Also the 80-200mm & 100-300mm were black and not white like other L telephoto lenses.

[p4pictures]

A little surprising to think that a TS-E lens has distance feedback. As soon as the lens is tilted there’s the likelihood that multiple subject distances are in focus, so which would it use? 

I’m rarely worried about lens distance info as I cannot remember the last time I used a Speedlite on the camera hotshoe aimed straight forward at a subject. Distance info is completely ignored by a camera for bounce flash, macro shots, and off-camera shots. 

[deebatman316]

That's true distance info and bounce flash don't work together. It's also the same with TS-E lenses. If it's tilted or shifted distance info is ignored. Do you know of any good videos on how to use Multi and Manual Flash modes. I've been playing with Multi mode lately. I only really use E-TTL. I'm trying something new. I know Manual Flash you always use ISO 100.